Doppelgänger
Doppelgänger is a term used to describe a paranormal double of a living person. For thousands of years, the Petrova doppelgänger and the Salvatore doppelgänger have fallen in love, ending with Elena Gilbert, who fell in love with the last and most recent Salvatore doppelganger, Stefan Salvatore. The first doppelgänger line introduced in the series is the Petrova doppelgänger line, of which Amara is the progenitor and Katherine Pierce, Elena Gilbert and Tatia are doppelgängers. A Petrova doppelgänger is estimated to be born every 500 years. Another doppelgänger bloodline, from the Salvatore bloodline, descends from Silas, whose only known doppelgänger is Stefan Salvatore, although according to Qetsiyah, there were Salvatore doppelgangers that preceded Stefan. The phenomenon of the doppelgänger occurs to counterbalance a disruption to nature's law that all living things must die. Silas and Qetsiyah, two of the most powerful witches and members of a very gifted people called The Travellers, created a spell for immortality. Disrupting that balance when he became truly immortal, Silas inadvertantly created a line of mortal shadow selves, or doppelgängers. The same occurred for his true love, Amara, who had also become immortal. Silas: The World's First Immortal Man Over two thousand years ago, a very powerful warlock named Silas, with the help of his best friend Qetsiyah, managed to make himself truly immortal by creating the immortality spell. However, all magic is bound by nature, which demands a balance. As a consequence of the immortality spell, nature needed to offset such an aberration as an immortal creature with a loophole, and thus a "shadow self" or doppelgänger bloodline was created as a version of Silas that could die. Silas' only known doppelgänger is Stefan Salvatore, and therefore, Silas is the progenitor of the Salvatore doppelgänger bloodline and a very ancient ancestor of the Salvatore Family. Amara: The World's First Immortal Woman Two thousand years ago, Amara fell deeply in love with a young and powerful warlock named Silas. Although Amara and Silas deeply loved each other, their love was forbidden since Amara was the handmaiden to Qetsiyah and Silas was engaged to be married to Qetsiyah. Silas' love for Amara was so strong that he wanted to spend an eternity with her. Silas convinced Qetsiyah to create a spell for immortality. Qetsiyah ended up creating the spell for immortality out of love for Silas. However, Silas intended to give the gift of immortality to Amara, not Qetsiyah. On Silas and Qetsiyah's wedding night, Silas betrayed Qestiyah and stole the immortality elixir, making himself and Amara the world's first immortal beings. After Qetsiyah discovered Silas and Amara's betrayal, she cured Amara of her immortality and then killed her out of jealous rage by slitting her throat and cutting her heart out. As a consequence of Amara becoming truly immortal, nature created a loophole and thus, shadow selves or a doppelganger bloodline was created as a version of Amara that could die. Amara's known doppelgangers are Tatia, Katherine Pierce, and Elena Gilbert. Amara is the progenitor of the Petrova doppelganger bloodline and is a very ancient ancestor of the Petrova Family. Tatia and the Original Vampires Tatia is a descendent of Amara and ancestor of Katherine Pierce and Elena Gilbert. She lived in America during the 11th century and was a contemporary of the Mikaelson family. Tatia is first mentioned by Rebekah, though not by name, when she comments humorously that the original Petrova was much prettier than Elena. In Bringing Out The Dead, Klaus and Elijah reveal Tatia's name while dining with Damon and Stefan. Elijah explains that he and Klaus had fallen in love with Tatia, and their mother Esther sought to end their feud by taking her. They later learned that it was Tatia's blood that laced the wine they consumed the night their mother turned them into vampires. In Katerina, Katherine explains to Elena the purpose of the doppelgänger: "The curse was bound by the sacrifice of Petrova blood. Witches are crafty with their spells. The doppelgänger was created as a way to be able to undo the spell. Once a doppelgänger reappeared, the curse could be broken." ''Although Tatia is not mentioned by name, it is inferred that it was Tatia that Esther sacrificed to bind the curse. The Hybrid Curse The notion of the doppelgänger as a class of supernatural beings was introduced in the episode ''Rose by the character of the same name. Until that point, the term was used simply to describe Elena's uncanny resemblance to the vampire Katherine. Rose explains that Elena is a Petrova doppelgänger, and that she is one of the necessary components in a ritual to break the Sun and the Moon curse, which allegedly caused vampires to be ruled by the sun and werewolves to be ruled by the moon. Rose had originally tried to hand Elena over to Elijah, in an effort to earn back his and Klaus' favor, but after Elijah kills her friend Trevor, Rose decides to tell Elena and the Salvatores what she knows about Klaus. Rose's story is corroborated by Katherine, who tells Elena about how Klaus had wanted to use her in the sacrifice, and "drain every single drop of blood" from her body. In the episode Klaus, Elijah reveals to Elena that the Sun and the Moon curse was fake, and the real curse was one that had been placed on Klaus to suppress his werewolf nature in order to prevent him from becoming a hybrid. He explains that 500 years ago, Klaus had intended to sacrifice Katerina in the ritual, but she thwarted him by turning herself into a vampire, thus rendering herself useless – the doppelgänger had to be human for the ritual to break the curse. In The Last Day, Elena surrenders herself to Klaus, and in The Sun Also Rises, after Jules the werewolf and Jenna the vampire have been sacrificed and their blood spilled over the moonstone by the witch Greta, Klaus drains Elena of her blood until she dies, and thus successfully breaks the Hybrid Curse. Fortunately for Klaus, Elena actually survives the sacrifice, and in The Reckoning, Klaus discovers from Esther (via Bonnie and Matt, who had contacted Vicki on the Other Side) that the blood of the Petrova doppelgänger is required to create more hybrids like himself. After a werewolf drinks Klaus' blood and he kills them, once they reawaken they must drink Elena's blood in order to complete the transition and become a hybrid. Silas' Resurrection and Qetsiyah's Return TBA Doppelgänger Lines Known Doppelgängers Petrova Doppelgangers |-|Tatia= Tatia was born during the 10th century in the area where Mystic Falls was to be formed. She was the 2nd Petrova doppelganger. She was a contemporary of the Mikaelson Family around the early 11th century. She is the descendent of Amara, the very first immortal woman. Tatia's doppelganger is an unknown lady who was born during the 5th century and her doppelgänger is Katherine Pierce. |-|Katherine Pierce= Katherine (Katerina Petrova) was born in Bulgaria on June 5, 1473. She was the second Petrova doppelgänger. In the year 1492, when she was still a human, she was captured by Klaus. She knew that she was going to die, so she tricked Trevor, one of Klaus's servants, into helping her escape. Katherine was clever, cunning and smart; she knew that if she became a vampire, she'd be rendered useless to Klaus. Katherine stabbed herself with a knife but was given vampire blood by Rose in an attempt to heal her stabbing wound and afterwards, Katherine hung herself and came back as a vampire. In return for her escape, Klaus made her suffer by killing her entire family in Bulgaria, thinking that the doppelgänger would never appear again. What Klaus didn't know was that Katherine had a child out of wedlock that was kept secret and this child continued the bloodline of the Petrova family, leading to the birth of Elena Gilbert, the second Petrova doppelgänger. Tired from running, Katherine intended to make a deal with Klaus by giving him the ingredients he needed to break the curse in exchange for her freedom. She planned to hand over the moonstone, Elena Gilbert (the 2nd Petrova Doppelgänger), Caroline Forbes (a vampire), Tyler Lockwood (a werewolf) and Bonnie Bennett (a witch). When Katherine was about to take out her own doppelganger, Elena shoves the cure, into her mouth. |-|Elena Gilbert= Elena was born in Mystic Falls, Virginia on June 22, 1992. Elijah was the first one who found out about Elena before Klaus. At first, when Rose told Elijah about this, he didn't believe it. But soon enough he found out that the Petrova family line didn't end with Katherine because she had given birth to a baby girl that was given away by her father, thus continuing the Petrova bloodline. Once Klaus learned of the second Petrova Doppelgänger Elena, he came to Mystic Falls, and he kidnapped Katherine, temporarily taking over the body of Alaric Saltzman. As with Katherine, Klaus is responsible for the death of Elena's family, most notably their aunt Jenna Sommers, Elena and Jeremy's legal guardian. He terned Jenna into a vampire and killed her for the sacrificial ritual. Unlike with Katherine, Klaus successfully killed Elena and as a result, he breaks the curse. Fortunately for Elena, John Gilbert had Bonnie form a special spell that bound Elena's life force or essence to his. This spell brought Elena back to life, but in return, killed John and took his life. In The Departed, Jeremy took Elena to Mystic Falls Hospital after discovering her lying unconscious at home. Meredith Fell discovered Elena was suffering from a serious cerebral hemorrhage, and secretly injected her with vampire blood to heal her. This action fortunately saved Elena from death. The same day, Rebekah ran Elena and Matt off Wickery Bridge to save her siblings from Alaric, since his life force was tied to Elena. That way, if she died, so would Alaric. Jeremy arrives home to see Alaric, and he talks to him and Jeremy realizes that he is a ghost, and that if he is dead, that means his sister, Elena, must also be dead. Stefan hurried to Wickery Bridge, intending to save Elena, but she insisted that he save Matt's life instead, who was unresponsive after crashing into the water. By the time Stefan pulled Matt out of the water, Elena had drowned and died. Stefan brought her body back to Mystic Falls Hospital, where she woke up, transitioning into a vampire with Damon's blood in her system. Salvatore Doppelganger Stefan Salvatore Stefan was born in Mystic Falls, Virginia on November 5, 1847. He was turned into a vampire along with his brother Damon in the year 1864 by Katherine Pierce. Not much is known about the Salvatore doppelgänger bloodline, Silas' background and Silas's history, but it could be assumed that there were preceding doppelgängers of Silas before Stefan, considering that Silas is 2,000 years older than Stefan. This seems to be true according to Qetsiyah, who tells Stefan that she has seen doppelgangers preceding Stefan while watching from The Other Side. As for how the Salvatore doppelgänger bloodline was created, when Silas made himself truly immortal, nature made shadow selves or doppelgängers of Silas as a version of himself that could die. Silas' doppelgängers are something that is able to die while Silas is not, thus maintaining the balance of nature. Powers and Abilities *'Petrova Doppelgänger Blood:' The blood of Tatia and her doppelgängers (Katherine and Elena) can link supernatural beings (vampires, werewolves, witches and hybrids) to kinship with the help of magic conducted by any witch/warlock. The blood of a doppelgänger and Tatia can also be used in the realization of a curse or spell which is extremely powerful. *'Salvatore Doppelgänger Blood:' When Silas was a human (a warlock) and before he became an immortal and was entombed for over 2,000 years, it is most likely that he had a child (or children) with his true love. This is the only possible explanation for another doppelgänger (Stefan) to be born. Silas was a powerful warlock who created the very first spell for immortality. The bloodline must have continued through the Salvatore bloodline, meaning that Silas is a very ancient ancestor to all of the Salvatore men, including Giuseppe, Damon, Stefan, Zachariah's Father, Zachariah, Joseph, and Zach. Myths *In some traditions, when a doppelgänger is seen by a person's friends or relatives, the contact prophesies illness or danger, while a person seeing their own doppelgänger is an omen of death. *In other traditions or legends, a doppelgänger is connected with the person copied; sometimes causing the feelings of injuries between the original and the doppelgänger. For example, if the doppelgänger is injured, the other person will also be hurt or feel pain. * "Doppelganger" is a German word or term meaning "double walker" or "double goer"―a shadow self that is thought to accompany every person. Traditionally, it is said that only the owner of the doppelganger can see this phantom self and that it can be a harbinger of death. Occasionally, however, a doppelganger can be seen by a person's friends or family, resulting in quite a bit of confusion. *The word doppelganger is a loanword from German, written there (as any noun) with an initial capital letter Doppelganger, composed from doppel, meaning "double", and ganger, as "walker". In English, the word is conventionally not capitalized, and it is also common to drop the German diacritic umlaut on the letter "a" and write "doppelganger", although the correct spelling without umlaut would be "doppelgaenger". *The term has, in the vernacular, come to refer to any double or look-alike of a person, most commonly in reference to a so-called evil twin, or to bilocation. Alternatively, the word is used to describe a phenomenon where you catch your own image out of the corner of your eye. In some traditions, seeing one's own doppelganger is an omen of death. A doppelganger seen by friends or relatives of a person may sometimes bring bad luck, or indicate an approaching illness or health problem. *The doppelgangers of folklore cast no shadow, and have no reflection in a mirror or in water. They are supposed to provide advice to the person they shadow, but this advice can be misleading or malicious. They can also, in rare instances, plant ideas in their victim's mind or appear before friends and relatives, causing confusion. In many cases once someone has viewed his own doppelganger, he is doomed to be haunted by images of his ghostly counter-part. *Other folklore says that it is considered unlucky to try to communicate with a doppelgänger. Trivia and Notes See also Category:Species Category:Humans Category:Supernatural Category:Immortal Category:Doppelgängers Category:Vampires Category:Undead Category:Petrova Family Category:Salvatore Family Category:Featured Articles